


Healing Takes Many Forms

by iseult1124



Series: Tumblr Bits and Bobs [1]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Developing Relationship, Friends to Lovers, Introspection, M/M, references to past canonical character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-09
Updated: 2014-03-09
Packaged: 2018-01-15 04:01:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1290529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iseult1124/pseuds/iseult1124
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Like this? Feel free to drop by my <a href="http://docoflaherty.tumblr.com/ask">my ask box</a> and leave me a prompt - if we're both very lucky it'll get the writing juices flowing!</p></blockquote>





	Healing Takes Many Forms

This lovely message from [ncc1701wanderinginspace](http://ncc1701wanderinginspace.tumblr.com/) arrived in my ask box: _My Mckirk feels are ruining me so im just gonna send them to you cuz I should be studying. Imagine after into darkness Jim has some leftover fears of the warp core and path to the engine room. He died there and all he can think about is endless darkness, that he didn't tell Bones he loved him. When jim finally gets the courage to go to THAT part of the ship Bones is holding his hand."You never have to go in there again jim, not if I cant follow, never again" it will be ok again someday.  
  
_

While he was recovering, and through all the meetings and hoopla surrounding the tragedy, it was easy for Jim to ignore his lingering fears. It was also easy, as it so often is when it comes to matters of the heart and protecting your heart, to cling to his cowardice and remain silent when it came to his feelings about Bones. His decidedly _un-platonic_ feelings about Bones.

But then things started dying down and those fears aren’t quite so easy to ignore, and Bones knows something is troubling Jim. It doesn’t take a genius, though Bones is decidedly a genius, to figure out what that might be. So he works with Jim, patiently, unobtrusively, until the day Jim is ready to face his fears head on.

And it isn’t until they’re standing there, Jim’s hand firmly clasped in Bones’, reassurances on Bones’ lips, that Jim realizes two things. It _is_ possible to love Bones more than he already does, and Jim’s not the only one suffering.

And like the flip of a switch, it becomes so easy. Because it’s not his heart he's protecting anymore, it’s Bones. It’s Bones who needs reassurances and healing, and there is nothing Jim wouldn’t do for him (not that anyone would have questioned that before his death; they certainly won’t question it now).

So with a gentle squeeze of his hand, and with a hushed voice, Jim apologizes. Apologizes for putting him through that, for not realizing how badly it was still effecting him, and for keeping quiet. At Bones’ confused look Jim makes his final confession: “I don’t regret for one minute doing what needed to be done to save you, and to save the crew. But I do regret what I put you through, and regret even more that I never once before now told you how much I love you. That I’m _in_ love with you. I can only hope you can forgive me.”

And there’s no question at all that Bones will forgive him - as long as Jim can forgive Bones’s silence on his own love for Jim. As if there was any question about _that_!

**Author's Note:**

> Like this? Feel free to drop by my [my ask box](http://docoflaherty.tumblr.com/ask) and leave me a prompt - if we're both very lucky it'll get the writing juices flowing!


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